1650 



AGRICULTURAI. MACHINERY AND IMPT.EMENTS 



in one organisation, the « Ceiitral Society », the problem, according to the 

 v.-riter, should be solved in the near future. 



1206 - Motor Ploughing in France. — I. De Cabausse p. The present trend of mechanical 

 cultivation, in La Vie agricole et rurale, 6th year, No. 41 (entirely devoted to mechanical 

 cultivation) (i), pp. 269-274, 5 figures. Paris, October 7, 1916. — II. 1,efortH., New 

 types of ploughs. Ibidem, pp. 275-278, 5 figures. 



I. -- The writer begins by relating the drawbacks of the light petrol 

 tractor which depieciates quickly. He asks if there is not good cause for a 

 return to steam traction. According to Massignon, president of a vineyard 

 syndicate in Anjou, steam could usefully be resumed if the makers would 

 build light machines. It is weight only which puts these motors into dis- 



Fig. I. — Bajac counterbalance plough with moveable balance weight. 



favour. The steam engine has an immense advantage over the petrol 

 engine in flexibility : the former can develop, if necessary, three times its 

 nominal power, which the latter cantiot do, and it gives a very uniform 

 speed of traction. The return to steam traction will be hastened, according 

 to the wTiter, by the high prices of paraffin and petrol, which are likely to 

 be permament on account of the increased consumption. 



Besides the question of the tractor, the writer discusses the choice 

 of the cultivating implement, and he considers the advisability of replac- 

 ing the plough with coulter, share and mould board, by a driven implement. 



At the Grignon trials, organised by the Minister of Agriculture in 1913, 

 the judges were not favourably impressed by the machines with driven im- 

 plements. The writer thinks that the latter should not have been rejected 



(t) Besides those abstracted, this number contains the following articles : Dr. Ch.ave.'vu, 

 Mechanical cultivation. — Schribatjx Motor cultivation and soil tilth. — P. Buchard. De- 

 monstration of machines for motor cultivation. — P. Buch.\rd, Public trials of cultivating 

 machinery in i<)i6. (E.N.) 



